Sound and music are almost undisputedly understood as auditory perception – in concerts, at best as audiovisual. But that doesn’t apply to everyone. According to a survey by SZBLIND, around 57,000 people in Switzerland are affected by a hearing impairment. That’s about as many as the city of Biel has inhabitants. The specific needs of those affected in the areas of communication, orientation and access to information and culture are hardly ever taken into account in everyday life and therefore also in cultural life.
And this despite the fact that many of them have a very specific idea of music because their hearing has only deteriorated over time – due to illness or an accident, for example. But music can also play an important role for people with deaf-blindness – SZBLIND estimates that around 10,000 of them live in Switzerland – because they can perceive sounds tactilely with the help of sound devices.
Breaking new ground together
As part of the anniversary events for “100 years of services for people with hearing impairments”, SZBLIND is therefore holding two concerts: one in Lausanne and one in collaboration with Konzert und Theater St.Gallen, where they consciously decided to hold a regular, albeit to open a particularly powerful Tonhalle concert for this purpose.
The decision is doubly motivated because, on the one hand, Concert and Theater St.Gallen aims to be a cultural institution for everyone, and on the other hand, from the conviction that the way in which people with hearing impairments receive music has great potential of the entire concert audience. “Magie”, which will be played in its inclusive version on February 16th and as a “regular” concert on the following February 18th, 2024, radically questions habitualized habits of perception. Nina Hug, co-head of marketing and communications at SZBLIND, says: “The practice of making music tangible is not new. There have already been various occasions in Switzerland when sound could be perceived in ways other than auditory.”
However, these efforts have so far been limited to specialized institutions or concerts in closed settings. So that this is now possible for everyone in a regular concert, the SZBLIND will provide aids such as inflatable balloons. These enable people with hearing impairments to perceive the orchestral sounds through their sense of touch. All other visitors are also invited not only to listen to the music reverently, but also to enjoy it beyond usual patterns of perception.
Powerful sound program
Magic first presents Paul Dukas’ “Scherzo based on a ballad by Goethe”, with its effective descriptions of the cocky sorcerer’s apprentice, one of the main works of program music. This is followed by Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, which combines classical music with the new styles of jazz and blues. As a soloist in the swinging, furious piece, the Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner joins the symphony orchestra.
At the end of the program is Antonín Dvořák’s 7th Symphony, which is considered by many to be the best of his nine symphonies with its dark minor colors, melodic richness and orchestral depth.
2024-02-07 16:40:49
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